RED's HDRx

I'm not a real fan of the RED for a bunch of reasons (which may be a blog one day) but RED may be the first to deliver a game changer: HDR (Hight Dynamic Range).

I think the easiest way to explain it is how we shoot stills.  Let say I have to shoot a hotel room with a window in the frame.  (I do a lot of shooting for Hilton).


I took one shot exposed for the room where the window was completely blown out and just looked white.  I took another shot exposed for the window as you see it in the picture.  The room was dark.  In post I can combine the images so everything looks exposed correctly (I shot the room was in Cairo, hence the pyramid on the TV that was also added later).

There's 3 ways of making the exposure change between the room and the window:  f-stop, shutter and ASA.  You can't use f-stop because the depth of field changes which gives away the trick.  Changing ASA would change the amount of noise in the picture.  When shooting stills it's best to use shutter to adjust the exposure.


This is not new technology, my iphone can do this... with stills.


But I've always wondered when someone would figure out how to do this with a motion camera.  The camera would have to take two "pictures" at the same time at different exposures and then combine the images either in the camera or in post.

When is now.  When the images are combine in the camera RED calls doing it EasyHDR and when you do in post RED calls it HDRx.


RED has been working on this for awhile and shelved it.  When the Alexa hit the market with 14 stops of latitude, RED dusted off it's HDR technology.  The tricky part is using shutter.  Shooting moving images any image smear shot at two shutter rates don't match.  RED has figured out a way to combine the different shutter rates.


I personally wonder why they don't use ASA.  It would seem to me it would be easier to add noise reduction software rather than trying to combine motion smear.  But maybe that's why I don't design cameras.

RED is now claiming that with the HDR RED cameras would have 18 stops of latitude.  This is a software thing so it would be available in the Epic and the Scarlet for a $1000 premium.  Or at least that's the word on the street.  That the cost of six rolls of gel and I'd never have to ND another window.  Wouldn't hurt my feelings.


Here's a couple of links to check out:
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=50483
http://www.theblackandblue.com/2010/09/25/first-hdrx-footage-from-red-epic-digital-cinema-camera/
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/journal/2010/10/21/red-turns-up-the-heat-with-hdrx-and-magic-motion.html

My F900 has something like this, the DCC circuit.  All Sony cameras have it but it really works on the F900 but I never use it.  While it does bring up detail in overexposed areas, the entire image looses contrast and looks milky.  I hate it.  I see a little of this happening in the overexposed areas of the "Barn Picture" but it holds pretty well in the dark.

Don't think RED is the only one working on HDR.  Cannon recently filed this patent:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/23/canon-patent-application-takes-in-camera-hdr-to-the-pixel-level/

Like I said, HDRx could be a game changer.  And every camera in the world will have it 10 year from now.  Maybe five.  What am I saying, it will be in my iphone 6 in less than 3 years.